Chiltern Railways is confident that it will be able to run a ‘near normal’ service when the RMT stages two strikes this month. The union has declared an industrial dispute over plans to operate trains on East West Rail with only a driver. It says driver-only operation would represent a ‘significant

An interim report from the Rail Accident Investigation Branch has revealed that the red signal which was passed a few seconds before the rear-end collision south of Bedford on 19 June this year was not equipped with a SPAD alarm. SPAD alarms are sounded in the relevant signalling centre, to draw

The arrival of autumn means that fleets of Network Rail’s special ‘leaf-busting’ trains are setting out on their journeys today. They will travel for a total of 6,200 hours – the equivalent of 36 weeks – in their annual bid to keep railheads clean, because fallen leaves create a black film,

East Midlands Railway has undertaken to restore more of the services which have been suspended since July because of rolling stock problems. Difficulties with its new Aurora fleet (pictured) were compounded by delays in maintaining its Class 222 diesel units, but the operator improved its Intercity services from 87 per cent

The RMT has announced that its members on Chiltern Railways will be taking two 24-hour strikes in October, as the dispute over the staffing of trains on East West Rail continues. The union is opposing proposals to run the trains between Oxford, Bletchley and Milton Keynes with drivers only. The RMT

The deputy chief inspector at the Rail Accident Investigation Branch Andy Lewis is being promoted to chief inspector from November. He will replace Andrew Hall, who is retiring. Andy Lewis has an engineering background, having trained as a marine engineer with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and then serving as an engineering

New figures show crimes involving trespass, including cable theft, vandalism and obstruction, caused over 3,300 hours of delays for passengers – equivalent to more than four months – and cost the rail sector more than £10 million in delay attribution minutes during 2025-26. In response, the industry has launched a new

The plans, announced at the Labour Party conference in Manchester, could involve the state owning new trains directly rather than leasing them from private sector finance houses. The leasing companies, known as ROSCos, were set up more than 30 years ago to own the fleets inherited from British Rail, because it

Transport for London has taken the first step towards ending outsourcing, a practice which is vigorously opposed by the unions on the grounds that the employees of third party companies can have less favourable conditions. TfL has confirmed that a comprehensive 12-month pilot to examine how cleaning services at bus and

Updated 11.00Avanti West Coast is to be renationalised on 7 March 2027. Transport secretary Heidi Alexander is expected to confirm this at the Labour Party Conference. The contract for AWC was the last of the old franchises to be awarded, to FirstGroup and Trenitalia, and started in December 2019. It was